GM 10-Bolt Polished Finned Aluminum Rear End Cover Installation Guide
When building a hot rod no matter what the style, one thing that is commonly overlooked is the rear end. Mostly because it falls under the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” and it just sits under there doing it's job, never thought about until something breaks. Even though the only way you'll ever see the one in my Laguna is if it's up in the air, I still wanted to give the old GM 8.5” 10-Bolt rear end some love.
Speedway Motors was the go to place again for what I wanted, I chose their GM 10-Bolt Polished Finned Aluminum Rear End Cover Speedway Motors.
It's an extremely nice cover, made of cast aluminum, with some great looking fins, beautiful polished finish, Allen head bolts, and even a drain plug, for easy fluid changes.
The only thing you'll need to pick up to go with it is a Rear End Cover Gasket, and Speedway Motors has you cover there too. So I picked up a Cover Gasket Speedway Motors.
Make sure the housing surface is clean of any grease, dirt, or old gasket material, after that I always wipe the surface down with either brake clean or alcohol to ensure there's no chance of a leak. Gasket Sealer isn't necessary but can be used to hold the gasket in place until you put the cover on.
Next, put the cover on lining up the holes - making sure the gasket stays in place. Install the 10 Allen Head Bolts. I always snug them down by hand first and then go back with a 1/4” Allen Head Key tightening them down in a cross pattern to prevent a chance of warping the cover causing a leak.
When you're finished you will have added some "Bling" to that old rear end, that seems to go unnoticed, until now.
